A Reflective Analysis of Image Processing Operations on Kato-Katz Images for the Pathological Diagnosis of Neglected Tropical Diseases

This paper gives an insight into the interdisciplinary work that has been carried out to diagnose some of the neglected tropical diseases, in particular micro-parasitic diseases, using image processing operations. The infections from micro-parasites are collectively called Helminthiasis. The Kato-Katz method is a slide scanning technique commonly used for the qualitative and semi-quantitative diagnosis of helminthiasis. This paper explains the image analysis and processing of Kato-katz images to extract meaningful information and convert the qualitative features of the images to quantitative data and thereby effectively diagnose the disease. This is the preliminary stage of a pioneering work done in the field of neglected tropical disease diagnosis and would be beneficial for thousands of people including children in the endemic region

Diagnosis and treatment of subclinical hypercortisolism

Context: Subclinical hypercortisolism (SH) is a condition of biochemical cortisol excess without the classical signsorsymptomsofoverthypercortisolism. It isthoughttobepresentinthe5-30%ofpatients with incidentally discovered adrenal mass (adrenal incidentalomas), which in turn are found in 4-7% of the adult population. Therefore, SH has been suggested to be present in 0.2-2.0% of the adult population. Some studies suggested that this condition is present in 1-10% of patients with diabetes or established osteoporosis. The present manuscript reviews the literature on diagnostic procedures and the metabolic effect of the recovery from SH. Evidence Acquisition: A PubMed search was used to identify the available studies. The most relevant studies from 1992 to November 2010 have been included in the review. Evidence Synthesis: The available data suggest that SH may be associated with chronic complications, such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, overweight/obesity, and osteoporosis. The available intervention studies suggest that the recovery from SH may lead to the improvement of hypertension and diabetes mellitus. A retrospective study suggests that this beneficial effect could be predicted before surgery. Conclusions: SH is suggested to be associated with some chronic complications of overt cortisol excess. Recovery from this condition seems to improve these complications. However, a large, prospective, randomized study is needed to confirm this hypothesis and to establish the best diagnostic approach to identify patients with adrenal incidentalomas who can benefit from surgery

Interconnection of bone, glucose and cortisol, and clinical implications

Dati recenti della letteratura hanno posto in evidenza come un eccesso lieve di cortisolo di origine endogena (ipercortisolismo subclinico) possa incrementare il rischio di frattura riducendo la microarchitettura scheletrica pi\uf9 che la densit\ue0 minerale ossea, inibendo l\u2019azione osteoblastica. La riduzione dell\u2019apposizione scheletrica e la conseguente riduzione dei livelli di osteocalcina da eccesso di cortisolo potrebbe peggiorare il compenso glicometabolico. Infatti, la condizione di ipercortisolismo subclinico determina anche un maggior rischio di diabete e malattia cardiovascolare. Il diabete stesso tuttavia riduce la microarchitettura scheletrica ed aumenta il rischio di frattura senza alterare la densit\ue0 minerale ossea, per una serie di alterazioni tra le quali \ue8 stato recentemente dimostrato poter giocare un ruolo la secrezione di cortisolo e la sensibilit\ue0 ai glucocorticoidi. Queste interrelazioni tra cortisolo, diabete e metabolismo osseo rinforzano l\u2019idea di un tessuto scheletrico come organo endocrino. La possibilit\ue0 di modulare la secrezione di cortisolo potrebbe aver un ruolo contemporaneamente nel controllo della malattia diabetica e delle sue complicanze scheletrich

Web-based randomised controlled trials in orthodontics

Randomised controlled trials (RCT) are considered the best source of scientific evidence--the gold standard--when evaluating the efficacy of orthodontic treatments. Frequently, RCT are planned as multicentre trials, with the intention of increasing statistical power and raising the precision of outcome estimates. The management of large-scale RCT, however, requires even more thorough organisation than conventional RCT. Indeed, the need for high accuracy and standardisation in data collection, research aids, secretarial skills, staff and patient training, and organisational meetings, make these studies time-consuming, expensive and, in general, relatively complex to carry out well. A website was developed to support a large scale-orthodontic RCT which aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a functional appliance(www.ortodonzia.unina.it). Websites such as this can increase the quality of data collection, simplify the randomisation process, speed up data collection, and improve trial monitoring. Web-based RCT have the potential to help globalise orthodontic research and also increase our rate of acquisition of evidence in orthodontics

Geochemical Evidences that Unrest at Campi Flegrei Resurgent Caldera (Southern Italy) Is Due to Magma Emplacement and Degassing at Shallow Depth Plus Fluxing from a Deep-Seated Regional Body

Volcanic calderas are affected by unrest episodes usually dominated by hybrid magmatic-hydrothermal system dynamics. Unrest episodes can evolve to eruptions of variable intensity, up to Plinian. Campi Flegrei caldera (CFc) is a type-location for this kind of activity escalation. CFc offers unique opportunity to join volcanological information to a long record of geochemical parameters. This allows understanding the role that magmatic system plays on variations displayed by the hydrothermal system. We model uneruptive unrest episodes as driven by i) the shallow emplacement (~4 km depth) of one volatile-rich magma batch ascending from a deep (≥ 8 km) magmatic body of regional extent, ii) subsequent gas separation with degassing driven by crystallization and iii) fluxing from the deep magmatic body. Our model matches three decades of geochemical constraints from fumarole discharges, as well as data from melt inclusions of past CFc eruptions. Besides, magma physical properties demanded for modeled degassing conditions are in good agreement with existing geophysical data. Our results open new perspectives to the definition of unrest scenarios at highly-populated CFc, as well as other resurgent calderas (e.g., Orsi et al., This Assembly)

ATLAS RPC Quality Assurance results at INFN Lecce

The main results of the quality assurance tests performed on the Resistive Plate Chamber used by the ATLAS experiment at LHC as muon trigger chambers are reported and discussed. Since July 2004, about 270 RPC units has been certified at INFN Lecce site and delivered to CERN, for being integrated in the final muon station of the ATLAS barrel region. We show the key RPC characteristics which qualify the performance of this detector technology as muon trigger chamber in the harsh LHC enviroments. These are dark current, chamber efficiency, noise rate, gas volume tomography, and gas leakage.Comment: Comments: 6 pages, 1 table, 9 figures Proceedings of XXV Physics in Collision-Prague, Czech Republic, 6-9 July 200

Rare earth doped silica optical fibre sensors for dosimetry in medical and technical applications

Radioluminescence optical fibre sensors are gaining importance since these devices are promising in several applications like high energy physics, particle tracking, real-time monitoring of radiation beams, and radioactive waste. Silica optical fibres play an important role thanks to their high radiation hardness. Moreover, rare earths may be incorporated to optimise the scintillation properties (emission spectrum, decay time) according to the particular application. This makes doped silica optical fibres a very versatile tool for the detection of ionizing radiation in many contexts. Among the fields of application of optical fibre sensors, radiation therapy represents a driving force for the research and development of new devices. In this review the recent progresses in the development of rare earth doped silica fibres for dosimetry in the medical field are described. After a general description of advantages and challenges for the use of optical fibre based dosimeter during radiation therapy treatment and diagnostic irradiations, the features of the incorporation of rare earths in the silica matrix in order to prepare radioluminescent optical fibre sensors are presented and discussed. In the last part of this paper, recent results obtained by using cerium, europium, and ytterbium doped silica optical fibres in radiation therapy applications are reviewed